Turning a Blind Eye

John 9

Christ Healing the Blind, El Greco 1567 PD

What are you; BLIND!?

This is a question that has been adopted as a phrase to voice our discontent with behaviors and actions we don’t really approve of. 

As a parent when I ask my children to clean up, I seem to find myself asking this question flippantly, 

Usually receiving the response from my children which proves sarcasm should not be wasted on the young; 

“Why no, Daddy, I can see just fine!”

I also find myself asking this question as I drive from place to place, observing drivers that are either incapable of driving courteously or sometimes incapable of driving at all. 

Interestingly, I find myself asking and even making accusations of blindness more often during this particular month every year or so. 

During March Madness, whenever the West Virginia Mountaineers make it far enough into the NCAA Tournament, I find myself becoming a basketball fan. 

Basketball, a sport which has rules that I honestly know about as well as the rules for cheese rolling or cricket. 

Yet, if WVU ends up in the Sweet 16, I seem to find myself becoming the foremost authority on the game, which I have not only never played but avoided for fear of looking like a fool. 

But there I am, sitting on the couch accusing the officials of blindness and demanding that the officials give my Mountaineers a free kick, an additional 15 yards for roughing the passer, or just outright appalled that the ball was called foul despite the fact that it was clearly not over the line. 

In spite of how all this sounds to you, I honestly have no idea how to play basketball, I just want to root for my Mountaineers. 

Yet, as incompetent as I am when it comes to basketball, I seem to make pejorative claims of others ability to see. 

Thinking that I know so much more than I really do, that I can see so much clearer than anyone else. 

Sitting on my couch in my own home, I can’t help but wonder, who do I think I am fooling?

No one, just myself….

~

Our gospel for today addresses blindness. 

It also addresses sight but not just sight.

Healing of the Blind Man, Carl Heinrich Bloch 1834-1890 PD

It addresses intuition, a word rooted in Latin that really means to look into, or inside of something. 

It is more than just seeing that is being addressed in our gospel today. It is a deeper perception of something below the surface of what is before us. 

It is also a LONG gospel reading. 

Forty one verses to be exact, with only two verses (7&8) describing the miracle itself. 

Yet we find ourselves doing what we always do, focusing on the miracle and losing sight of the surrounding story. 

A story that contains thirty five verses that reveal the beauty of the slow process of this man’s sight being FULLY restored. 

Thirty nine versus that also illustrate the degrees of blindness in others, as well as ourselves. 

There is a progression to the restoration of the beggar’s sight because Jesus comes to the beggar faceless at the time of their meeting, because the beggar is still blind. 

He does not know the face of the one who performs the miracle, only the name; Jesus. 

So, when he is brought to the Pharisees by his neighbors in order to discover the source of this miracle, perhaps even the validity of it, he has very little to go on. 

Questioned first by his neighbors as to the identity of the man who has healed him, he simply refers to Jesus as “a man called Jesus.”

In the midst of his interrogation at the hands of the Pharisees though, he seems to have looked deeper into what has transpired, looking deeper into just who Jesus is. 

The beggar, upon being asked what he himself has to say about this man, further reflects on just what has happened, and it dawns on him that this must be the work of God. 

Ironically, this realization seems to have come to him as much from the skeptical questioning of the Pharisees as it has from his own heart. 

He is an honest man, responding to the questions with not only integrity but with his own sense of curiosity. 

A desire to know just what has transpired for himself. 

And when he returns to the Pharisees, his certainty of Jesus’ work as the work of God is affirmed. 

Not by his own deep questioning, but by receiving more of the skeptical and even militant questioning of others. 

Standing by his claim to the point of scorn and mockery, even being driven out of this Pharisaic court for no other reason than the persistence of his belief. 

Ridiculed because he was willing to process the evidence of what has been shown clearly to him, not by Jesus, but by his inquisitors. 

Evidence that he is willing to truly see, even as others turn away. 

Because, others have learned to close their eyes to what they choose not to see. 

Perhaps, because they have seen too much? 

And maybe that has made them blind? 

~ 

Another image that is found in this passage is one we have heard several times since Christmas. 

It is a persistent theme in John’s Gospel; Jesus as the light of the world. 

In all honesty, given the frequency with which we have talked about this theme I wasn’t certain it was important to address this week. 

At least not until I considered the role light plays regarding our sight. 

Photo by Nelly Volkovich, Picture provided through Unsplash

Science is not my strong suit, but you don’t have to be a scientist to appreciate the incredible nature of the human eye. 

Not only because of what the human eye can do, but what we have done with the human eye. 

Human beings are the only creatures on earth that are as capable of seeing as far beyond of what they can comprehend as we are. 

We are also the only creatures that can see as deeply into the things around us as we can, even our own bodies. 

We can see beyond our own planet, even the galaxy, in which we live. 

We can see our own cells, viruses, even atoms!

And yet the more we see, the more curious we are and the more we want to see. 

And the key to all this is LIGHT. 

They say that eyes are the windows to the world. 

And that is more true than we sometimes realize. 

Because the lenses on our eyes allow the light that is reflected off the world to enter into the eye and our pupils control the amount of light that enters into the eye, controlling our focus. 

The light that is reflected from our surroundings is projected onto our retina and that is what allows us to see the world. 

It is in this same way that Jesus Christ reflects the Incomprehensible into our world, into our lives. 

God, which is so far beyond what we can grasp is reflected into our lives by Christ. 

But only if we are willing to open our eyes to that light, because if we shut our eyes tightly in spite of that light or to the world around us; 

We might as well be blind. 

~

This story offers a deep contrast to the unveiling of the beggar’s own sight. 

There are three other groups that seem to be struggling with sight through most of the scenes in this story where Jesus and his disciples are mostly absent. 

The crowd who cannot believe what they are seeing. 

Seeking excuses and reasons that deny what is clearly standing before them. 

Perhaps having seen so much of the reality of the world around them, that they refuse to believe such a good thing as this could occur to such a man. 

Denying his very identity, even accusing him of being a stand in or lookalike. 

Perhaps jaded by what they have seen in the world. 

So pessimistic that they have come to refuse that God can be at work in so low of a place as the eyes of a blind beggar. 

Refusing to reconcile a God that can be at work for good in all things, even those things the world seems to have lost interest in or has no time for, like the poor. 

Then there are the parents of the beggar who do not deny their son. 

They admit that it is their child and that he has come to find his sight, but they turn their own blind eye to the situation. 

Turning a blind eye to the questions of not only others but their own questions. 

They must know that such questions will not go away and yet they refuse to even entertain the most basic question; how such a thing as this has occurred?

Healing of the Blind Man, Duccio 1308-1311 (PD)

Certainly not avoiding the question because it has not arisen in their own minds, but because they fear the answer. 

An answer that will cast them out of the synagogue, out of their social circles, out of the worldly graces of their own society. 

Far too risky of a question to ask if it can be avoided. 

So they choose to deny the very reality of what has happened, retreating to a position of blindness. 

And then we have a group of Pharisees who have organized themselves into a kangaroo court. 

They have made their judgment before the beggar even arrives in their court on his first visit.

Then on his second and final visit even dictating TO the beggar what has “officially” transpired during his healing. 

Sharing the good news with the beggar that he HAS been healed by God and should give glory to God but advising that such a judgment by the court will include the accusation of Jesus as a sinner. 

The court doesn’t offer a judgement to the beggar, they offer two options:

Confess that Jesus is a sinner and a fraud

Or 

Oppose the court’s judgment and be accused and cast out himself as a sinner. 

And so; 

the beggar is driven out. 

~

So, where do we find ourselves in this story?

I would say that a healthy dose of skepticism in the midst of our faith is merely a reflection of authenticity and honesty. 

The same authenticity and honesty that leads the beggar to find himself slowly confessing his faith to Jesus when he gazes upon Christ’s face for the first time. 

A faith that is tested by honest and thorough questioning. 

But that is a fine line to walk, isn’t it?

Because if we see too much of the world, we find ourselves blinded by how broken it all is. 

Refusing to believe in anything. 

This is a far cry from healthy skepticism, it is unbelief and it leads to hopelessness and despair. 

So, we could always protect ourselves with naivety and an overabundance of optimism. 

Now this, this is what we love as the church. 

Rose colored glasses and care bears sliding down rainbows. 

But is that the reality of the world outside the walls of the church?

A world where only sinners are tried by the afflictions of the world and we chosen few are protected by God’s merciful hand as compensation for our regular attendance and generous donations?

Sisters and brothers, I am CERTAIN there are a few of you out there who cannot accept this to be true, I know I can’t. 

The fact is that we see what we WANT too see of the world. 

And this leads us into either a blindness of unbelief or the invisibility of irrelevance. 

We are called to be a church that is faithful to the promise that is true AND relevant in a world that needs that assurance now more than ever!

And if we board up the windows of our sanctuary, it may deny the ugliness of the world outside, but it will also deny the light of that same world that shines so brilliantly through, bringing us the hope that WE so crave!

www.stockphotosforfree.com/

We are all blind to certain realities.

So jaded, we refuse to see the beauty of the world.

So naive, we refuse to see the ugliness of the world.

So superstitious, we refuse to question.

So pessimistic, we refuse to believe.

But for us to truly see we must not only see the world but see into the world, embracing a promise from the Kingdom of God that exists also in the broken Kingdom of man. 

Because true sight is the wholeness of seeing two kingdoms. 

This leads to seeing it all together and when it is all brought together, the wholeness of the world can lead us to seeing the holiness of God, 

And that is not only a faith that is tested but a faith that is authentic, honest, and rooted in the cross of Christ +. 

~

This past week there was a lot going on. 

In the midst of a busy week, my wife and I received a number of messages on Tuesday morning, concerning some close family friends, one of which was far more than just a mentor to me. 

We came to discover that their daughter had died after a struggle with addiction. 

Addiction to a drug that I regularly encountered as a police officer, a drug that became my worst fear after encountering both the substance and its victims. 

And when I heard the news my heart sank into the pit of my stomach. 

I’ve struggled to think clearly this week because I found myself asking how?

How for so many years did I not see? 

Even as I was executing search warrants, dealing with others who were  addicted to that substance? 

How was I so blind as I interacted with their daughter almost weekly?!

If only I had seen, I could have done something, maybe I could have supported them more than I did. 

But I didn’t see, even now, looking back, I cannot see it. 

As a police officer, we used to talk about the bubble that the rest of our communities live in, isolating themselves from the world in a state of ignorant bliss. 

It didn't take long after my resignation from the department to find myself comfortable in that bubble, even admitting to old friends that I now willingly ignored what I knew was going on in the neighborhoods that were just a block from the seminary where I was studying. 

Now, I am not sharing this story to gain your sympathy, but I need you to hear that no matter how much we see or how much we think we know, we all turn a blind eye to what we don't want to see. We all have a tendency to see what we WANT to see and perhaps this Pharisee has chosen blindness too long, because Christ’s light needs to be seen in those dark places that we turn a blind eye to, and in our baptisms we are called to be the candles that carry that light into those places. 

Amen. 

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Faith; A Road to Nowhere

Genesis 12:1-4, Romans 4:1-17, and John 3: 1-17

Courtesy of Unsplash Public Domain Stock Photos

My wife and I have found that these days we only recognize two categories of time in our lives. 

I like to refer to these two time periods as BK and AK. 

There is an extensive period of time before we met, before we were married, before we lived in certain places, even before we had certain jobs. 

But the period of time that radically changed our entire lives was not the completion of our varying levels of education, our moving into our first home, or even our marriage but that AK period. 

These two time periods are Before Kids and After Kids. 

Having children changed every single facet of our lives. 

Adventurous cooking, cuisine, drinks, art, all seem to have no place in our household any longer. 

Even “adult programming” as we have come to call it, has become a rare treat for us. 

And while I can deal with cartoons and chicken nuggets, rather than Game of Thrones and a nice ribeye, “After Kids” travel is the one piece of our lives that makes us miss that BK period more than anything. 

It isn’t that we don’t want to spend time with our kids, we do. 

We love having time with our kids, especially when we are on vacation. 

But what is particularly difficult is getting there in the first place. 

Car seats, toys, diapers, toys, utensils, toys, kid friendly food that won't make too big of a mess, toys. 

By the time you have the car packed it is a wonder that we can even fit ourselves into the vehicle. 

And if you forget something on the way home; MAJOR MELTDOWN, every-time!

Even traveling to someone else’s home for a meal is a fiasco. 

Usually, it has more to do with the stuff you must bring than the kids themselves. 

Traveling After Kids, no matter the distance, is a burden. 

~

The Caravan of Abraham
James Tissot, 1903 (PD)

In our first lesson today, the story we hear about Abram is the very beginning of his journey. 

It is a journey in which Abram is called to clearly break away from all the burdens of his stuff, freeing himself from his land, his people, and his lineage. 

This would essentially strip Abram of every single thing of value in a nomadic society. 

And he isn’t just breaking free of things, but he is breaking free of his very identity and culture. 

When we read this story, we most often think of Abram’s faith as a response to a definitive promise made by God. 

But God’s promise is anything but definitive or obvious. 

God commands Abram to begin this journey; to nowhere. 

God demands Abram sever all ties from everything he knows and then promises that if he does this, God will let him see the land that God will …SHOW to Abram. 

That may be the chance of a lifetime for a photographer or a painter but giving up all you have to just catch a glimpse of some patch of land doesn’t seem to be a decent tradeoff for all Abram is giving up. 

Abram isn’t just traveling light. He is putting himself in the most precarious position imaginable. 

This almost seems impulsive. 

It seems like a decision that lacks any rational thought, especially for that day and age, regardless of whether it is before kids or after kids. 

And you would think that the next two verses would sweeten the pot a bit for Abram, but they don’t really. 

God promises him that a great nation will be made FROM Abram, 

Like a plant that sprouts from a seed, but there is no assurance that Abram himself will see any such nation. 

And if you skip to the end, you’ll find that Abram indeed does not see such a nation. 

God goes on and promises to bless Abram and make his name great, but the language shows these are continuous actions that will occur beyond Abram’s life, so again, these are blessings that may not occur in Abram’s own lifetime. 

Again, if you skip to the end, you’ll find Abram indeed never witnesses this come to full fruition either. 

It goes on like this throughout the text, promises are made to Abram by God for taking this action, but these are great promises that Abram won't see come to fulfillment because Abram serves as the seed of all these blessings. 

Blessings that will not be bestowed to Abram specifically, but to those who “will bless themselves” to him. 

Seems a bit like taking credit for something someone else does, doesn’t it?

It would appear Abram does all the work, and those who claim to be Abram’s children will reap the rewards.

Abram is never blessed for his own sake but for the sake of others.

Not the best deal, considering all that he is giving up. 

Yet, Abram responds to the command obediently, with one caveat, he ends up with Lot as a tag along. 

How’s that for breaking away from your father’s house?

And Lot will turn out to be a lot more baggage than Abram anticipated. 

Lot will be such a burden that this may be why God told Abram to leave his father’s household behind in the first place.

Even with all Abram faithfully gave up, the one thing he wouldn’t let go of seems to weigh him down far more than he could have imagined. 

Because Lot turns out to be more trouble than Abram bargained for. 

~

I’ve told a few people here at St Michael when I first arrived and I knew that many of you had heard the same thing from Stephen when I saw the eye rolls, but Lent is truly my favorite time of year. 

I can’t speak for Stephen as to why it is his favorite season but for me, I love Lent because it is not about where Lent leads us but the journey that we are taking in the first place. 

Because in all honesty, if this road we take at Lent really did end at the cross for all of us, would we really want Lent to end at all?

Courtesy of Unsplash Public Domain Stock Photos

In 1985 the band Talking Heads released their single “Road to Nowhere”.

The writer and lead singer for the Talking Heads, David Byrne said that he wrote the song as a joyful look at the impending end of our lives, a joyful approach to the looming nature of our limited mortality. 

“We're on a road to nowhere

Come on inside

Taking that ride to nowhere

We'll take that ride

I'm feeling okay this morning

And you know

We're on the road to paradise

Here we go, here we go”

It seems to capture the nature of not only Lent, but the beginning of Abram’s faith journey. 

Abram is taking the road to nowhere, a road that leads to a set of ambiguous promises, that really aren’t even meant for him specifically. 

And his journey is more than just a story, it is a metaphor for faith, not just for Abram but for us as well. 

Lent is not about the perfect journey and our faith is never really fully perfected. 

But the joy in our lives is not just where we are going to end up, but the road we take to get there. 

And sometimes, the burdens we carry with us become as much a part of that journey as the destination itself. 

~

Much like Abram, Nicodemus is carrying a little dead weight on his own journey in the Gospel for today. 

Nicodemus is a Pharisee and a member of an elite class of aristocracy known as the Sanhedrin.  

A class of religious elite that will judge Jesus’ actions on numerous occasions, to include their recommendation to Pilate to crucify Jesus. 

In fact, Nicodemus himself will be engaged in a debate over Jesus with the Sanhedrin in a few chapters (John 7:51).

But in this story, we are told of how Nicodemus comes to Jesus to confess his faith in Jesus’ mission. 

He professes his faith that Jesus is a teacher from God, even submitting himself to Jesus when Nicodemus refers to Jesus as “Rabbi”, basically submitting to Jesus as his own teacher. 

This would make Jesus the teacher of one most learned members of the religious elite class. 

But Jesus’ response to this confession of faith is surprising. 

He essentially responds to this confession of faith with a warning. 

Christ and Nicodemus, Fritz von Uhde 1896 (PD)

A warning that there is quite a bit more that will be required of Nicodemus. 

The issue is not his role as a Pharisee or even his participation in the Sanhedrin. 

And while many would like to believe that this passage points explicitly to baptism, it points far beyond our baptism. 

Jesus’ response is prompted by a confession from Nicodemus that is grounded in the works of Jesus, the miracles Jesus has performed. 

And Jesus is warning Nicodemus that he is searching through laws, and stories, and miracles that point to the concrete reality of this world. 

Things that Nicodemus can see. Things that Nicodemus can comprehend. 

Nicodemus is confessing a faith that is grounded in a journey that has a definitive destination. 

Nicodemus is confessing a faith that is grounded in a carefully plotted route. 

He is confessing a faith that is grounded in certainty. 

This is a far cry from a road to nowhere. 

Jesus declares to Nicodemus a journey that begins in the water and the Spirit, but much like the wind that blows, he assures Nicodemus that faith is meant to be something that takes us on a path and to a place that we cannot fully grasp. 

Jesus calls Nicodemus to an ambiguous faith that comes and goes from a place we do not know. 

Probably about as comfortable for Nicodemus as it is for us, right?

Because we like to deal in concrete facts, in definitive reality. 

We want the map and we want to know where it leads. 

But faith doesn’t work that way, because faith is grounded in a reality far beyond the one we see. 

And that is why Jesus calls Nicodemus, and us, to an uncertain faith. 

A faith that questions where we are going, how we are getting there, what exactly it is we believe in. 

A faith that questions things and a faith that sometimes doubts things. 

A faith that sometimes falls flat on its face when we dig into the freezer at 3 AM with nothing but a spoon and a carton of chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream in spite of our Lenten pledge to give up sweets. 

~

This past Wednesday was International Women’s Day. 

People recognized this day in a variety of ways but on Wall Street, where the iconic bronze bull statue stands, a new statue appeared to commemorate the day. 

It was another bronze statue standing opposite of the bull. 

The bull was standing as if it were preparing to charge the subject. 

Public Domain photo courtesy of flikr
Photo by Sam Valadi, July 22, 2011

Given the size differential of the two figures, the bull appeared to be the clear favorite if the two statues took on a life of their own. 

The statue standing in opposition to the bull was modest in size comparatively to this powerful animal. 

Not only was this statue comparatively undersized in contrast to the Bull, but it was the statue of a little girl, no more than 8 years old. 

She stands fearlessly, with her hands on her hips and her chin raised upwards. 

Her feet planted firmly beneath her with her ponytail blowing in the wind, and her eyes affixed on the bull that is towering over her. 

Standing firmly in the face of what would logically be foreseen as a catastrophic outcome, if these two bronze figures were flesh and blood. 

Yet there she stands, in the face of doubt, in the face of the odds that stand against her, not denying these odds or doubts but facing them confidently, honestly, and faithfully.

This is the kind of faith that Abram is called to grow into, this is the kind of faith that Nicodemus is called to seek. 

An authentic, honest, and courageous faith that stands in the face of all challenges, rather than escaping to the smoke and mirrors we so often seek out to protect our faith.  

Faith isn’t BLIND if it is authentic, faith looks into the eyes of doubt, uncertainty, and the questions the world rightfully demands we answer as the church.

It doesn’t mean we always have the answers but it means we engage the questions. 

And sometimes those questions lead us to somewhere, sometimes somewhere we cannot quite describe. 

But sometimes it leads us to nowhere, and we can’t be lost in the middle of nowhere if that is exactly where God has called us to be. 

Faith, Lent, and yes LIFE is about this grand glorious road to nowhere. 

Because we don’t really know where we are going or where faith will take us. 

And sometimes there are some heavy crosses that we carry with us on that road, but we can be confident that in end of that journey we are assured we won't be hung from those crosses, because He's already there. 

Amen

Christ Crucified, Diego Velázquez 1632 (PD)

Sources

Byrne, D. (1985). Road to Nowhere. [AAC file] Sigma Sound Studios in Manhattan: Warner Bros./Sire Records.

Chan, M. (2017). Thousands Want the Wall Street’s Fearless Girl Statue to Become Permanent. [online] Fortune.com. Available at: http://fortune.com/2017/03/10/fearless-girl-statue-wall-street-bull-petition/ [Accessed 11 Mar. 2017].